'Tis the season for making year-end predictions, and even though I'm clearly not very good at it, I got dragged into doing them a while back. So here are some for 2012. Enjoy these with the appropriately sized grain of sodium chloride.

It's been a tumultuous year for a whole lot of folks, and the cleantech market has been no exception. As we near the end of 2011, I thought it would be good to look back on how our predictions from a year ago turned out.  

Here's what I predicted last December:

1. The cleantech venture capital shakeout will become more obvious.

I'd say this has been true. At least to entrepreneurs seeking financing, especially early stage. A few of us in Boston were recently trying to figure out who's still actively investing in the sector in this region -- and it was a shockingly short list. I suspect the same is true in other regions as well.  Score: +1.

2. 2011 will be the Year of Energy...

Been caught up in a number of year-end projects and thus am way behind on topics I've wanted to write about, so here's a quick set of thoughts on a few unrelated topics, Peter King "Monday Morning Quarterback" style:

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Had dinner last night with several of Boston's most active cleantech angel investors (thanks to Bic Stevens for the invite).  No, none of this went on -- just some thought-provoking conversation over a great Italian meal. One thing that struck me, though, was hearing that Boston-area cleantech VCs are now doing only around three or four Series A rounds per year, and yet at that table were angels who had done eight and six deals over the past year themselves.